Paid Blogger

Get Banned by Gaming Digg

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 15:18:00 +0000

Yesterday I wrote about gaming digg for cash. The concept intrigued me. I was also curious how Digg would be able police this and prevent abuse.

Thus, I decided to try it. I registered an alternate Digg account. Then I registered at User/Submitter. I dugg two articles last night.

When I logged on this morning, there was another article to digg on User/Submitter. I went to digg it, but I got an error message saying "Sorry - bad IP address." Digg caught me!

I figured I could out-smart the system. I setup Tor to I could login to Digg using a different IP address. Yep, I had the solution....

I was able to login using my regular Digg account (I never cheated the system with this account). But when I tried to login using my "gaming" account, I was greeted with this friendly message:

What's the lesson here? Don't cheat Digg. You'll get caught. Your account will be disabled. Your IP will be banned. You'll be stuck using Tor when you want to login and do anything with a valid account. It's a bad plan. Or maybe I'm just not stealthy enough to do it.

Nevertheless, my experiment was fascinating.

Game Digg for Cash

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 02:47:00 +0000

Disclaimer: I'm not advocating this, just making you aware of it.

I've heard about Digg "gaming" before, but I didn't really understand the situation fully until I saw news of this Wired article. Apparently there's a service called User/Submitter which allows a "submitter" to submit a link and pay money for diggs. "Users" then digg that link, earning money for doing so. Talk about a scheme!

To be clear, this blatantly violates Digg's terms of use:

[Y]ou agree not to use the Services: ... with the intention of artificially inflating or altering the 'digg count', blog count, comments, or any other Digg service, including by way of creating separate user accounts for the purpose of artificially altering Digg's services; giving or receiving money or other remuneration in exchange for votes; or participating in any other organized effort that in any way artificially alters the results of Digg's services.

They go on to say that you can be completely banned from Digg if they discover you're a participant in gaming the system.

But is this much different from rounding up your posse of friends to digg a story for you? We all know that money can virtually buy friends. User/Submitter just takes out the middle man and goes straight from cash to diggs.

I'm not sure how much you can make from this type of "work," but if you're desperate for cash, you don't have much to lose. I personally don't see a huge value to Digg in the first place, so being banned wouldn't be something to cry about. Although it might be kind-of depressing if you only made $1 in the process.

Great Ways to Make Money Online

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 02:11:00 +0000

There's a great post over at Web Worker Daily that covers 10 ways to make money online. This is great for us bloggers who want to make money on the web. The post is pretty basic, but it might remind you of an idea that you haven't pursued yet. Give it a read!

Check Out PayPerPost's Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 15:10:00 +0000

If you're trying to be a paid blogger, you definitely should know about PayPerPost. They provide a system where bloggers earn money for writing paid posts. The subject of this post, however, is the update that PayPerPost just rolled out.

One new thing that intrigues me is the "review my post" program for affiliates. Bloggers can put a badge on every post that lets a reader sign up for PayPerPost and review the current post. When a reader does this, he earns $7.50. The cool part is that the referring blogger also earns $7.50.

Interestingly, PayPerPost also has upped the ante with their advertisers. A couple recent opportunities have offered as much as $150 for a post. Granted, this required a high Google PageRank (6+, I believe), but that is still neat.

All in all, PayPerPost seems to be shedding the stigma that they're just for two-bit bloggers. It will be interesting to see if they can gain some respect from top bloggers by taking these moves.

A Great Tool for Tracking Your Pursuits

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 03:08:00 +0000

If you're serious about blogging for money, you should get serious about keeping track of things.

One great way to do this is with an online service like Side Job Track. This is an online job tracking application that keeps up with your clients, estimates, projects, services, materials, etc. You can run reports, create invoices, and manage your time. It does all this from within a nice-looking interface.

For a great write-up of the application, check out this post. It explains some of the features, as well as how the program can be used.

Personally, I think this is a great tool for any freelancer or contract worker. Paid bloggers can easily use it to track earnings from advertising programs, paid post companies, and consulting jobs. It's flexible enough to handle all your needs.

However, be sure to keep track of your bank accounts in a reliable accounting program. Side Job Track is merely used for your client data and actual job details. Don't rely on something like this to keep from writing a hot check.

The Basics of Making Money Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 19:05:00 +0000

I just ran across a great post that covers a few of the ins-and-outs of trying to earn money with a blog. Corey did a wonderful job summing up some of the main points that we've talked about here before, and that every paid blogger must know. You definitely should head on over and check it out!

Passive Blogging Income

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Darren has a great post over at ProBlogger about being able to earn a passive income by blogging. Basically, he confronts the question about whether you can build a blog, then sit back and let the money roll in.

The answer? NO

Well, Darren goes to a bit greater length to explain the answer. There are a couple ways blogging income can be "passive," in a sense. As you build up archives, those pages are earning money without further work. Also, some programs like Adsense can be "set it and forget it."

However, the key is that you will have to continue working on your blog, or your page ranking, search engine ranking, and overall traffic will fall. It won't plummet overnight, but you can't just walk away and expect the earnings to keep rolling in.

Be sure to check out Darren's full post for the details and his explanation.

Get a PayPal Account for Easy Payments

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 14:48:00 +0000

If you're trying to make money online, you should definitely setup a PayPal account.

The biggest reason for doing this is that some online companies only pay through PayPal. I believe PayPerPost operates in precisely this manner. Thus, if you don't have a PayPal account, you simply can't get paid by companies such as this.

Second, many companies offer expedited payments through PayPal. For example, Text Link Ads will send your payment via check or PayPal. As we all know, it takes time to cut checks and send them through the mail. However, PayPal provides instant payment. For Text Link Ads, this means you'll receive payment instantly on the first of every month. Cool, right?

PayPal provides a secure method to receive payments, assuming you take reasonable precautions. You should never click a link from an email to PayPal (or any other online account). This is a prime method of phishing. If you choose a secure PayPal password, protect it appropriately, and monitor your bank account, everything will be fine. Plus, you'll get your payments quicker.

Should Adsense Blend or Stand Out?

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 01:05:00 +0000

I guess that's a loaded question. It depends.

In my personal experience, I've had success both ways. However, I have noticed a bit higher CTR when I changed from ads from blended to a color that complemented the page's design, but stood out.

The page was mostly blues, so I chose a couple complementary reds for the ad design. The CTR went up a little bit when I did this. However, I'm not sure if that's really due to the color change or just more traffic. Who knows?

I submit that a big problem with Adsense (and ads generally) is ad-blindness. Users (especially regular readers) just become blind to ads over time. Perhaps shifting colors after a while helped with that. Maybe it would be a good idea to change colors (and ad locations) every couple months. I'm not saying that we should shift things a lot, but just a bit to make people notice.

Try Referral Programs for Easy Cash

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 05:07:00 +0000

Are you a member of some type of money-earning program? Have you inquired to see if you can also earn money by referring other people to the company?

Two programs that I participate in have some really good referral incentives: Text Link Ads and PayPerPost. Of the two, I think Text Link Ads' is a bit better. You post a simple graphic or text ad on your blog. Then anyone who either becomes a publisher or an advertiser with TLA will earn you $25. That's a nice piece of change for doing very little work.

The only problem with referral programs is that your network of people to refer is necessarily limited. If you try to just sign up your friends, you'll run out of people really quickly. This is why you must use the graphic or text ads on your blogs. Get your site's visitors to see the value in the program. Perhaps someone will actually have the desire to advertise on your blog and sign up through TLA.

Whatever you do, don't simply overlook referral opportunities. The possibilities are quite endless, and you definitely shouldn't knock it without giving it a go.

Drive Traffic by Being a Carnie

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 15:59:00 +0000

To get paid for blogging, you'll need traffic. How do you get that?

One great way is to participate in blog carnivals. They are basically a travelling collection of blog posts on a different subject. Most of them happen at a regular interval, and bloggers take turns "hosting" the carnival.

You can find carnivals in your nice by checking out Blog Carnival. Use their online forms to easily submit posts to carnivals you find.

Also, don't overlook being a carnival host. Carnivals only run through the contributions of bloggers like you. Being the host entails some work, but you will usually end up with several links from blogs that might not usually link to you.

Blog Dedication Required to Make Money

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 23:29:00 +0000

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

A lot of opportunities exist to make money online. You can serve contextual ads, sell ad space, link to affiliate products / services, post paid reviews, and more. However, you can't make money with any of these unless you put some work into your blog.

What do I mean by this? Well, all of these money making endeavors rely on one thing: traffic. In order for the ad or affiliate companies to make money, your website has to send them significant traffic. So how do you make money?

Traffic really is the key. You have to be dedicated to your blog or website and build your reader base. Otherwise, you cannot earn anything online.

Even with paid review programs, your blog must have some of its own content, and it must have existed for a certain number of days. You can't just get a free Blogger blog and earn money right out of the gate.

Dedicate yourself to blogging, build a reader base, and you'll be on your way earning money online.

First Text Link Ads Sold!

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 15:17:00 +0000

I'm so excited! I was working on my main blog, and I saw that I finally have Text Link Ads!

If you haven't checked out this cool way to monetize your blog, you should definitely give it a look. It's quick and simple to sign-up and add the code to your blog. Plus, you can sell ads on your RSS feed, as well as your blog pages.

Advertisers pay a monthly fee to appear on your blog, and you get a cut of that. Payments go out once a month, via either check of PayPal. Easy, right?

PayPerPost Generates Easy Money

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 04:38:00 +0000

Are you looking for a quick way to make some money blogging? Check out PayPerPost.

Simply register an account, get your blog approved, then post away. You'll earn anywhere from $5-20 per post! Most of the opportunities only require you to write about 100 words. It's easy. Just review a product or service and get paid. Cool, right?

Happy earnings!

Disclosure Policy

noreply@blogger.com (Francis Lawsche) — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 04:37:00 +0000

Yep, I'll be blogging for money around here. Nope, I'm not ashamed of it. And no, I won't do it all the time.

But I guarantee that you'll know when I get paid for writing a post. That's what disclosure is all about. Thus, any time I'm getting paid to write a post, I'll put "Sponsored Post" at the top. You'll quickly know that it's a paid post.

Also, I guarantee that I will NEVER write a post that is required to be positive. I will only provide my honest opinion on products/services. If I can't tell it to you straight, I won't accept the sponsorship. That's what I'm guaranteeing.